Calorie Goal vs Nutrients vs Macros

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flrancho
flrancho Posts: 271 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
I'm sure we've all been there - you've had days where you haven't met your calorie goal - and you know MFP is going to tell you your not eating enough. Yet you've maxed out your fat, sodium, sugar, etc intake for the day, or your macros are way off skew.

What do you do - stop eating even though your not eating enough, or eat to meet the minimum calorie goal even if you go over the top on some nutrient?

Replies

  • riffraff2112
    riffraff2112 Posts: 1,757 Member
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    For me, the macro nutrients are the least important thing, especially on a day to day basis. Get your calories in, and look at weekly, monthly macro nutrients to make sure things aren't way off the charts. Looks like you have done an amazing job so far, congrats.
  • DemoraFairy
    DemoraFairy Posts: 1,806 Member
    edited September 2015
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    I don't follow macros personally so I'd just eat. One day of eating under isn't going to do any harm, if I get to the end of the day and I'm under and not hungry I take that as a blessing because I know that I'll go over at some point, and that day of going under will offset it a bit.
  • yarwell
    yarwell Posts: 10,477 Member
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    Micronutrients should be viewed over a week or more in my opinion. Macros ? I would want to achieve a minimum protein and omega-3/6 fat intake but these are quite modest (50, 3 and 11 grams/day resp).
  • ki4eld
    ki4eld Posts: 1,215 Member
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    For that one day, I'd stop eating if it's the end of the day. If not, make a good choice for dinner and let it go.

    After this happened to me a couple of times, I started pre-logging food. Once I began doing that, I stopped having problems. I bump over or under on macros a few days a month, but nothing that's a problem.
  • PinkPixiexox
    PinkPixiexox Posts: 4,142 Member
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    I really don't pay ANY attention to macro's. I know I probably 'should' to a degree but it confuses the whole process with me. I make sure I have my deficit but I'm not interested in also calculating my carbs, protein and fat. I've lost 30lbs not knowing anything about macro's. Maybe further down the line when I'm in maintenance, I will research the benefits of hitting the macro's but for now, I'm happy plodding along and losing the pounds! :)
  • abatonfan
    abatonfan Posts: 1,123 Member
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    I pre-log a few days in advance so that my macros are somewhat in-target (and I have an idea of what snacks to have if I'm hungry but falling short on a macro).

    As for going under, I let 1-2 days a month slide without much concern, and I end up "banking" those calories for when I might be hungrier. If it becomes more than a 1-2 day occurrence, then I make modifications to my meal size and timing so that it's easier to meet the 1200 minimum (adding a higher portion of nuts and fats to my meals and snacks, less frequent but more calorie dense meals instead of frequent "mini meals", etc).
  • alt5057
    alt5057 Posts: 62 Member
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    I have only been doing this a little over two weeks, but I have not paid much attention to my macros. I'll look at them at the end of the day and see how it turned out, but I am already spending enough time compiling recipes and figuring out meals each day based on calories...at this point, I'm not digging into the macros just yet.

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